Thy will be done
by priestessgrrrl
Summary: Ritsuka has lost his ears, but not to Soubi! What will happen when Soubi finds out?


Ritsuka looked guiltily from left to right as he moved to exit the school._ Please don't let him be here today, please don't let him be here…_ He knew he was going to have to face Soubi eventually, but not today, not now… _Please not now. This day has been difficult enough already.  
_  
He knew he should never have agreed to go over to Yuiko's last night. What the hell had he been thinking? She had been trying to seduce him for years and it had been getting increasingly harder for him to avoid her. Now that he was 16, and so many of their classmates had already shed their ears and tails, he had run out of excuses. And last night, of all nights, he just couldn't stand to be alone. How could Soubi have forgotten? The anniversary of Seimei's death. The worst day of the year for Ritsuka. And the one person who would have understood the significance of this dark day was nowhere to be found. Damn it, that guy was so unreliable! Half the time he was like a stalker, but then he was never around when you really needed him.

Ritsuka had been a total wreck last night. His mother was on the warpath; Soubi wouldn't answer his phone… When Ritsuka's phone finally rang, his hand was shaking so badly he could barely push the talk button. And there was Yuiko on the other end, babbling about how her parents were away for the weekend and had left this bottle of sake lying around… Stupid, stupid, _baka… Don't do it!_ his mind screamed. But just then, he desperately needed not to be alone. Anything was better than this. Anything…

And so, 19 miserably embarrassing hours later, here he was, standing outside the school, wearing a set of fake ears that were fooling absolutely no one, debating climbing the wall and sneaking out through the back so as to avoid facing his Fighter whom he was sure was waiting for him close by. He could feel it. That meant Soubi could sense his presence also. _Damn it, what the hell am I going to do?_

He quickened his pace to keep up with the other students flooding out of the school. _Maybe if I just stay in the middle of the crowd, he won't notice me, and I'll be able to sneak by…_ Too late. He felt the familiar tug on his arm even amidst the mob of students. He didn't turn around.

"Soubi! I don't want to see you today! Go home!" he shouted, pulling against the hand that held him fast. He braced himself for the usual tug-of-war and accompanying argument, when Soubi suddenly and unexpectedly let go of him.

Ritsuka couldn't help it. He turned around. The look on Soubi's face was indescribable. It was not quite astounded, not quite horrified… no, the emotion etched onto his face was more like… _fear._ He looked absolutely terrified, in fact. Come to think of it, Ritsuka didn't think he had ever seen Soubi look frightened before. It struck him as… odd. Why would he be…?

"Ritsuka…" His voice was a whisper, almost a plea. Disbelieving sapphire eyes hung before him like enormous jewels.

_Damn it, I can't deal with this right now._ "Go home, Soubi! I don't want to talk about it, okay? Just go! I order you… I order you to go!"

Soubi looked so utterly defeated as he lowered his head and walked quickly away that Ritsuka almost called him back, but he thought better of it. _That's all I need right now,_ he thought, _is that guy asking me a thousand questions. Let him be the one left wondering for once. Serves him right. I'll figure out what the hell is going on with him later._

Soubi turned the corner so quickly he nearly lost his balance. He had to press his back against the cold brick building for support. _His Sacrifice had lost his ears._ Ritsuka. His Ritsuka. Someone. had taken. his. Ritsuka. He sank slowly to the ground and put his head between his knees, fighting nausea. _Breathe. Just breathe. It's not as bad as you think. Just keep breathing._ His ears. Ritsuka's precious ears…

_"Your ears, Soubi-kun. It's time we were rid of them. Face the wall. Don't make a sound."_

He shook his head, trying in vain to clear it. A thousand horrible scenarios flashed through Soubi's mind at once. How the hell had it happened? When…? More importantly, who…? Had Ritsu-sensei finally decided that he had had it with Soubi and Ritsuka's little rebellion? Had he sent… someone after him? Or had he… come himself? _No, that's impossible,_ he reasoned. _You're being totally irrational. You would have known if… if that had happened…_

And yet… he didn't know. He hadn't known. He hadn't even felt it when… whatever happened… happened. What the hell had he been doing? The past 4 or 5 days were all a blur… He and Kio had pulled several all-nighters while working on final projects, and last night he had finally passed out from exhaustion.

_Damn it. This is not good. This is seriously, seriously not good._ Reality was starting to blur around the edges. He suddenly wasn't sure where he was or what he had been doing. His muscles tightened. Hugging his knees, he curled up tightly against himself as memories brushed him like butterfly wings, threatening to ensnare him in their ephemeral web.

_He flinched in anticipation of the lash of the whip. Once. Twice. Three times. It will be over soon, it will be over… but a part of him didn't want it to be over. Not yet, wait, don't stop… I felt… I felt something awaken inside me… please, don't, don't stop, I almost felt what it was like to be alive, almost…_

He awoke to find himself curled up in fetal position, shivering on the ground of the alleyway. The sun had already started going down. His muscles were so cramped he could barely stand. _Damn._ He picked himself up gingerly and started making his way back to his apartment, when suddenly, something inside of him snapped. He had to see Ritsuka, _now._ He had to know if he was alright. What if _that person…_ what if he planned to come back, now, tonight?

_I'll kill him, _he thought_, I'll kill him dead, with no remorse._ He quickened his pace, his aching muscles forgotten in his sudden, all-consuming rage. Rounding the corner, he made his way to Ritsuka's neighborhood and climbed up to his balcony, the Fighter in him taking over almost completely. His rap on the window nearly put a crack in it.

Ritsuka had managed to escape Soubi, Yuiko and his mother today, which was quite an accomplishment, and he really wanted nothing else other than to take a nice hot bath and crawl into bed. As he sank into the steaming water, he felt on top of his head for the little nubs where his newly shed ears used to be. It was still such a strange sensation, not having them. The world had somehow shifted. He was now an adult, fully and properly. It didn't seem real to him. He sank lower into the water, pondering…

The unusually loud rap on the window of his room shook him out of his reverie. _Ignore him,_ he thought to himself, _you told him to go home; he has no right to be here._ He certainly didn't have any right interrupting his bath, just now. The insistent knocking became louder. It stopped. Then, without warning, came the sound of glass shattering.

_What the hell does he think he's doing?? _Ritsuka jumped out of the bathtub and grabbed a towel before rushing into his bedroom. It was a good thing that his mother had locked herself in her room and was down for the count this evening, otherwise… His thoughts were immediately arrested by the sight that awaited him in the bedroom. He stood, mouth agape, eyes wide, and stared.

Soubi looked like a creature sprung from another world. Like an avenging angel, with one wing dipped in blood, come to save the day, but with disastrous consequence. Standing in the doorway, framed by broken glass, his wild hair whipping around his head, blood running down his face, his eyes were full of murder. The energy of spellcasting pulsed through the room like lightning.

Soubi took a step forward, and Ritsuka screamed. _This is it, he's come to kill me; it's like that dream, all those years ago; Seimei told him to kill me and now he's going to do it, he's going to…!_ He turned to run away in terror. Soubi grabbed him first. He struggled for all he was worth, but Soubi was much stronger than he was, and he took hold of Ritsuka's bare shoulders and forced him to look up at him.

"Ritsuka. Tell me where he is. I'll kill him for you. I'll kill him right now. Tell me." The look in his eyes was so frightening, Ritsuka thought his heart was going to explode.

"Wh… what? SOUBI! What is the matter with you?? Who… who are you talking about? What… what's gotten into you? You're CRAZY!"

"The one who… took them…" He lifted a trembling hand to Ritsuka's head, touching the spot where his ears until recently had peeked out from behind his hair. Ritsuka flinched.

"What, Yuiko?" Ritsuka was seriously concerned that Soubi had totally lost his mind at this point. What the hell was going on with him?

"Y… Yuiko. You had… sex with… Yuiko," Soubi choked out.

"Um, _yeah,_ isn't this what this is all about?" Ritsuka was still staring at him.

The spell seemed to dissipate. The room became smaller. The wind stopped blowing. Soubi collapsed, and Ritsuka barely caught him before he hit the floor.

"Soubi! What the… are you alright?" Ritsuka knelt before Soubi and brushed his bloodstained hair out of his eyes. To his amazement, tears were streaming down his Fighter's face. "…Sooooubi. Are you really… is this really that upsetting to you? Me and Yuiko? I… I didn't know… I mean, I didn't even really enjoy it, I mean…"

"It's okay," Soubi breathed through Ritsuka's hair as he held him close. "It's okay, really. I'm fine. You and Yuiko… it's fantastic. Congratulations." He seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time.

Now Ritsuka was seriously doubting his Fighter's sanity. He pulled out of the embrace and looked into Soubi's still wet blue eyes. "Are you sure…?"

Soubi leaned in to place a soft kiss on Ritsuka's questioning lips. "It's okay. Really." Ritsuka wasn't really convinced, but he leaned in for another kiss anyway, glad that Soubi seemed to be behaving normally again, or at least, as normal as he ever was. He was enjoying the way Soubi was massaging his now-earless head, and he stopped paying attention to much else, until…

"Ritsuka."

"Yes?"

"You've lost your towel."

Ritsuka blushed to his roots. Yep, back to normal alright. _I wonder if I'm ever going to know the real Agatsuma Soubi?_


End file.
